H2O Season 4: The Four Mermaids
by Grace Miner
Summary: Emma and Lewis are both back on the Gold Coast, and the gang is together again, all going to the same college. But trouble arises when the full moon gives the mermaids new powers! The girls must learn to use control, while still dealing with their secret and their own everyday lives.
1. One More Mermaid?

Emma POV

I was thinking about Cleo and Rikki while I rode on the plane back to Australia. I had missed them so much, and while my year around the world with my family was amazing, they're the people who understand me the most in the world. I'm always good at keeping my cool, but I was ecstatic thinking about seeing my mermaid friends again. I was even going to the same college as they were later that year!

We had kept in touch, and Cleo and Rikki had told me about their new friend Bella, who became a mermaid as a child. I admit I'd felt a pang of jealousy when they'd told me about a new mermaid friend. But I'd gotten over that quickly when they told me about her, and now I was just interested to meet her. I mean, except for Charlotte (who now is thankfully human again), I'd never heard of another mermaid. Besides, our transformation was about 3 years ago, and Bella had changed when she was nine! I'd always felt like Lewis, although helpful at times, wasn't a proper fourth girl for our group anyway.

Elliot tapped me from the next seat. "How much longer on this plane?" he asked.

"Um… Only a couple hours, I think," I told him, glancing at my watch.

"Only?" he groaned.

I smiled. He knew about my secret now, and so did my parents. I'd worried about many things when I told them, especially them forbidding me from swimming, but they had taken it amazingly well. From that point on, it made the rest of the year so easy. Not having to lie and run from water was a huge relief. Elliot had been mad at me for a couple of weeks (he can really hold a grudge) but eventually gave in and forgave me.

The intercom came on and announced, "In 2 hours, we will be landing. Thank you for riding Pacific Airlines." I decided there was time for all of this thinking when I got back. I lay back in my chair and closed my eyes, drifting off into yet another dream about the sea.

Cleo POV

"Let's go, Rikki, we don't have all day! We've got an HOUR to get to the airport!" I was jumping out of my skin about seeing Emma again, but Rikki and Bella were taking SO long. I had been waiting for ages for Emma to come back, and now we were going to have a group of four mermaids. I'd worried about Bella and Emma fighting, but they're not really that type. Definitely Bella, who's always looking to meet new people (especially another mermaid!) was interested. Rikki was just as excited as I was, but taking FOREVER to put away her folded laundry.

"Alright, alright, coming!" she said. I smiled and we left her trailer.

As we walked towards my house so I could drive us to the airport, we talked.

"This is great," I said, "With the four of us together, we'll have more fun than ever."

Rikki smiled and turned towards Bella. "Well, I'm excited. Now we'll have TWO people pressuring us to study!"

Bella laughed. "I just never knew there were so many mermaids in the world."

"Well thank God you never knew Charlotte," I said, and Rikki and I rolled our eyes together. Bella wisely decided not to ask, as we'd explained briefly about Charlotte before.

"You know, it's too bad Lewis isn't here tonight, you know, to see Emma again," Rikki said.

"Actually," I revealed, "Lewis called me earlier today. He's coming here, and his flight gets in tomorrow morning!" I smiled, excited for him to come back. It had only been 5 months, but I'd missed him.

"Well, I guess it'll be a complete reunion then," Bella said.

"Yep!" I looked up. "Oh! We're here already! Get in, guys, I'll just go tell Dad and Sam we're going."

I came back a few minutes later with my sleeping bag and things, and stuffed them into the trunk along with Rikki and Bella's things.

"Okay, let's go, it's a long drive," I said, sliding into the driver's seat. As I started the engine, I smiled. With Lewis and Emma back, we would all be together again. Plus Bella and Emma would meet. Basically, I just had a really good feeling about all of this.


	2. Gelatin and Ice

Bella POV

We got out of the car at the airport. Cleo and Rikki were giggling and talking about Emma's return and "the four of us". It wasn't that I was scared of her taking over, which Cleo had feared I would at first. I just felt kind of out of place. I had only known them a year, and Emma and I had known each other for, well, never. I knew based on Cleo and Rikki's attitudes from the minute they found out Emma was coming back that I would be standing there awkwardly on the side while they reunited, and it would probably be the reverse when Cleo, Rikki, and I were talking. I just hoped Emma and I bonded quickly and skipped the whole awkward phase, so we could all hang out with no problems.

Cleo and Rikki and I walked over to sit on the bench, talking about our college plans and our exam grades, normal non-mermaid things, while we waited for Emma.

Finally, a blonde, slightly tanned girl in a light blue sundress came down the ramp. Cleo and Rikki ran over to her, and they all started hugging and laughing. I walked over to say hi.

"Um, hi. You must be Bella, right?" she asked.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you, Emma," I told her.

So. That went well. We walked back to Cleo's car together, talking about the school year and planning our next big swim. The plan was to go and sleep over at Cleo's, since she had the most room and Emma's parents were going out with Elliot.

Once we were back at Cleo's, we had work to do. First, we set up the bedroom for all of us to sleep in. Then, we ordered pizza and found some DVDs. And, of course, Emma and I showed each other our powers.

I stared, wide-eyed, as Emma poured a glass of water into a cup, put fork in the middle of it, and froze into instant ice. She laughed, "It comes in handy on a hot day," she said.

I smiled, "Okay, my turn." I nudged Cleo, who poured some water from the faucet and molded it into a floating sphere in front of me. I twisted my hand, and felt a rush of energy like I always do when I use my power. I turned it to gelatin, and then hardened it in mid-air. I caught it before it hit the floor (out of habit) and handed it to Emma.

Emma had pretty much the same reaction I had when she did her ice trick. "It's so cool," she said, running her fingers over it, "It's like glass, but… water!"

"Well, now that we've got that settled," Rikki said, "I think the pizza's here." She opened the door and paid, taking the pizza in with her.

Rikki POV

We were at Cleo's, eating pizza and watching movies, now with both Emma and Bella. I never thought this would be happening somehow, even though I was excited about it when I heard. Honestly, with Zane and I only on speaking terms but still broken up, and with the gashes in the walls at the Moon Pool that Sophie had caused, I always had this gnawing feeling in the back of my mind, like something was missing or wrong. But now, with Emma back (and, okay, Lewis too) it felt like that didn't matter. All four mermaids was a huge relief for me.

Of course, while I enjoyed our little pajama party, I couldn't wait for the real fun: swimming, Mako Island, the Moon Pool. Swimming with Cleo and Emma was great, and so was swimming with Cleo and Bella. Swimming with Cleo and Emma and Bella was going to be amazing. Mako being my favorite place in the world, and Cleo, Emma, and Bella being my favorite people in the world, I was obviously pretty excited. I was already planning it in my head, and I'm not one for planning.

I heard a scream coming from behind the chair, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"KIM!" Cleo shouted, "You're not supposed to be watching these movies, I've told you before!"

"Stop bossing me around! I can watch a movie if I want to!"

"No! Forget it! You can't always poke around doing whatever you like!"

Bella, Emma, and I exchanged a look. We had all experienced Kim and Cleo's back-and-forth bickering many times before.

"Cleo, it's not worth it. It'll be fine, you should let it go," Emma said. I rolled my eyes. She always was the rational one.

We finished the movie and went upstairs to Cleo's room. "Hey, guys," I began hopefully, "feel like a swim to Mako?"

"I can't wait to go to the Moon Pool again," Emma said, "But I just spent 11 hours sitting on a plane."

"Yeah, I'm tired too," Cleo announced, "Let's go to sleep, but first thing in the morning, we're off for a swim."

"Alright," Bella and Emma said at the time and laughed.

I lay down on my sleeping bag and sighed, turning on my iPod and flipping through my songs. No harm in trying.


	3. Moonshine

Emma POV

I was in the Moon Pool with Cleo and Rikki and Bella. We were talking a lot since a lot was coming up. Lewis was coming back today, which of course Cleo was delusionally happy about. And in two days, we started college. Rikki was glad to be swimming. Bella and I had a lot more in common than I thought, and we had been talking more since the sleepover last night.

"I'm hungry!" Rikki announced, "Let's get something to eat!"

"Rikki, we don't have time," Cleo said, "We're picking Lewis up in a half hour. Actually, we really should be going now!"

"Oh, do we have to? There's plenty of time," Rikki whined.

"Alright, come on," I said, "Let's get going. We don't want to be late. Besides, we might come back later anyway."

With that, Cleo and I dove out of the pool and through the tunnel out to the ocean, Bella and Rikki reluctantly following us.

Cleo POV

When we got to the airport, the same one we had picked Emma up in last night, we sat and waited. Finally, Lewis came walking down the ramp. I gasped (I know, I've seen him before, but it had been a long time) and ran to him and hugged him. I could practically hear the girls rolling their eyes behind me, but oh well. I had Lewis back, at least for a few days. We walked over to the girls, where they all said hi, especially Emma, who had been gone for a year.

Later, we were hanging out at the Tropical Surf Café (It was pretty much our new JuiceNet/Rikki's Café). We were talking about our new college, University, when Lewis said:

"I was going to tell you this before, but I decided it would be a surprise. This isn't just a visit. I'm staying!"

I stared, open-mouthed, "Really?"

Lewis smiled, enjoying our reactions, "I graduated my course early, so I'm here to stay this time. And, I'll be going to University with you girls."

I couldn't believe it. I mean, I was happy when he visited, now I was just amazed. I laughed and hugged him.

"Well," Bella said, "Now that that's out, are we up for a swim to Mako?"

She got a chorus of:

"Yeah," (Bella)

"Definitely," (Lewis)

"Duh," (Rikki)

"Sure," (me and Emma)

Bella picked up Will from his boatshed, and Emma grabbed Ash (who she had quickly reunited with), and we went towards the ocean.

With four mermaids and three boyfriends, the Moon Pool was the most crowded it had ever been. We were joking and laughing for a while, when I looked up and realized it was dark. "Guys, look," I said, pointing at the opening above the pool, "How long have we been here?"

"Wow," Bella said, "Time went by quickly!"

The others started chatting about it, worrying about getting home. I got this haunting feeling that I couldn't shake. I was forgetting something. What wasn't I remembering? And then a familiar ray of light shone on the pool. I looked up to see the tip of the moon coming over the opening.

"Everyone, get out of the pool, NOW!" I shouted. They looked up and quickly figured out what was going on. Lewis, Ash, and Will easily scrambled out of the pool, and tried to pull us up. But the four of us were too heavy for the three of them, and with all the chaos, and the moon moving too quickly, we couldn't get out. The pool started bubbling, and I panicked. So many thoughts ran through my head. What if we lost our powers and our tails? I had wanted this when I first changed three years ago, but now I dreaded it.

The gold and silver specks flew up towards the sky along with the moonshine. I felt the pool slightly pulling us into its center, right where the moonlight hit us. It passed just as quickly as it came. It left the four of us floating. I looked down. My tail was still there. So were the other girls. We swam to the edge and we all looked at each other, the same question running through everyone's mind: Was this just a normal full moon? Or did something happen to us? We were silent for a while.

Rikki broke the silence: "Look, I don't know what just happened. Maybe nothing. But I've got to get home, Dad will be worried."

"Me too," I sighed.

"Let's all get some rest and meet at the Café tomorrow morning," Emma said.

"Yeah, okay," Bella agreed.

We swam back quickly. We all parted. Lewis dropped me off, and I kissed him good night. Exhausted, I slipped my shoes off and looked around. Kim and Sam had already gone to bed, and I remembered Dad was on a late shift tonight. I sighed in relief and quietly walked upstairs to my room. I looked at my fish's tank and regretted it. It was dirty and grimy. I rolled my eyes. This is what I get for not cleaning it last week. Well, might as well do it now. I looked around and found gloves, a sponge and a bucket. I put the fish in other water and twisted my hand to lift the water out of the tank as usual, but I felt strange doing it. Before I knew it, the water had exploded! It splashed all over my room and me. I looked around for a towel, but it was too late. I grew my tail and flopped onto the floor .

What had happened to my powers? What did I just do?


	4. Power and Control

- -Thank you for reviewing, ObsessedwReading and chamini - -

Bella POV

I was rushing to the Café, partly because I had slept in and I was late, and partly because I was freaked out! Last night, I was tired after getting home from the Moon Pool. I'd flopped down on my bed, and reached over to turn off the light. But as my hand opened to grab the light switch, I'd blasted the glass of water across the room. It had turned to gelatin as usual, but then rain started pouring through my open window! I'd looked at my hand in shock, and pulled it away. The rain stopped. Then I had put my hand out again, and the rain came even harder! I had pulled it back again, and decided I had to get some sleep.

This morning I had woken up, and thought about putting my hand out and testing it, but I'd thought better of it. I got dressed and walked out, half running and half jogging to meet the others. This had to be because of the full moon, right? This had never happened before, so what else?

When I walked through the door, Cleo, Emma, Rikki, Lewis, Ash, and Will were already there, with worried expressions. They saw me and waved me over.

When I got there, I said it right away: "Listen, something strange happened to me last night—"

"You too?" Cleo and Rikki said in unison.

"Wait… What happened to you guys?" I asked.

Cleo and Emma and Rikki all started talking at once, and finally Emma said, "Alright! Something clearly happened to us, but why?"

"Well, it had to be the full moon," Lewis explained, "You girls were in the pool when the moon passed over, so it obviously had some effect."

Rikki suddenly looked at me, "Bella… What happened to_ you_ last night?"

"Yeah, are you alright?" Will asked.

"Oh, I… I caused rain to fall. And I tested it, it wasn't a coincidence."

"Last night, I just set my pillow on fire out of nowhere. I can normally start a fire if the object has water or something on it, but this didn't," Rikki said, shaking her head.

"I made water explode. It just splashed all over the place, but it didn't feel like my normal powers. It felt… new," Cleo told us.

Emma looked up, "Same with me. I mean the feeling. I just created ice and frost out of mid-air. Normally I can do that with water and liquid and things that have water _on_ them. But it was on my floor, which was completely dry."

Lewis nodded, "So this is just like two years ago; you were in the moon pool when the full moon passed, so you got new powers."

Cleo bit her lip. "And Bella, you got a weather power, just like we did when we were in the pool for the second time."

"Yeah, I guess. I'd never had that power before. It felt strange to control the weather," I responded.

Rikki sighed, "Guys, if this really is like what happened two years ago, we're in trouble."

Emma said what no one wanted to hear: "We have new powers that we have to learn how to control. And not only that, but vacation's over. We start college tomorrow!"

Rikki POV

I looked at Cleo, Bella, and Emma. They nodded and smiled encouragingly. I put my hand in a fist and raised it slowly towards the candle, concentrating on a small, controlled flame. Before I knew it, there was a roaring fire bigger than the candle itself, which spread to the tablecloth. Cleo tried to move some water from the faucet to put it out, but it exploded and splashed us. Bella quickly put it out with a pillow, just before flopping onto the ground with the rest of us.

I groaned. "There's no way we can do this. School starts TOMORROW! We have less than 24 hours."

"Don't be so negative, Rikki," Emma said, "We'll figure this out."

Lewis walked in on us with our tails in Cleo's room and smiled, "I take it things went well."

"This isn't funny!" I shouted at him.

Emma rolled her eyes, "Lewis, this isn't helping!"

"True," he said, "which is why, I talked to Max, who gave me this." He handed Cleo a small packet of old-looking papers.

Cleo frowned, squinting at the tiny lettering, "Powers and Control," she read.

I sighed, "A guide to being a mermaid?" I asked.

"More like a guide on your powers," Lewis said, missing the sarcasm, "these pages are detailed steps and explanations for everything that's been happening to you guys."

Later, Emma was reading the steps on the pages.

"Do you really think those will work?" Bella asked.

"Might as well try. Now I'm going to carefully frost that one corner over there," she said. She lifted up her hand, concentrating. Before our eyes, we watched ice appear on the corner of the wall, icicles and frost forming. It stopped there.

"It worked," Emma told us, "I concentrated and thought the way this book said to, and it worked!"

"Wow," Cleo said, "How do you think Max knew this stuff anyway? About what to think?"

"I don't know," Emma replied, "But we can use this. By tomorrow, we'll at least have _some_ control, enough not to stand out."

"Well then get ready for our first day at SCU." I said.


	5. First Day

Cleo POV

I heard a loud beeping. I hit the snooze button and opened my eyes warily. I was excited for my first day of college, sure, but right now I was asking myself why on earth I had chosen early classes. "Oh, 6 AM, it'll be fine!" I muttered, mocking myself. I forced myself up out of the far smaller bed in the dorm room I now lived in. I turned on the bath water, and started to brush my teeth, lay out my clothes, and all the other stuff I didn't want to do at this hour.

Eventually I stepped into the bathtub, and ten seconds later, my shimmery orange tail appeared. I touched the tough, smooth scales, and then I carefully lifted and twisted my hand. The water in front of me made a small splash, and then I lifted up a tentacle of water from the other side of the tub and poured it over my hair to wet it. I smiled. Yesterday, we freaked out trying to control our new abilities before today. The book Max had given us had really worked. I used it to understand the power, and that gave me the advantage.

When I was dry, I threw on a light blue t-shirt and some denim shorts. I flat-ironed my hair, and left my room to look for the girls before my first few classes. I found Emma easily (she was put in the same building as I was) and we searched for Bella and Rikki.

"So, how are the powers going?" I asked her as we walked around the campus.

"Pretty good, I've gotten better," she replied, "You?"

I beamed, "I've got it under control."

We saw Bella and Rikki looking for us, and jogged over to them. Bella and Rikki reported how they were doing with our new situation.

"I don't know," Rikki was saying, "I did better, but I still have to keep my hands at my sides all the time. I'm just worried I'll do something to threaten our secret."

"It's alright," Bella told her.

"Yeah, Rikki, I'm with you for this class anyway, so I can help out if anything goes… you know," I told her.

"Thanks," Rikki said.

I was in class, listening to the professor's talking and writing my notes. Rikki looked at me and rolled her eyes, mocking the teacher's monotone voice. I smiled and shook my head, looking back at my notes. I saw Rikki raise her hand and I got a bad feeling. Before I knew it, the pile of papers on the professor's desk in the front of the room burst into flames! I gasped, and the other students started standing and talking. I looked at Rikki. She moved her eyes from the fire to me, her pale blue eyes filled with fear and confusion. I knew how she felt.

The teacher put out the small fire with his jacket, clearly shaken up. The class sat down, but you could still hear whispering and chatting. "Well, I'm not sure what that was, but, there are only five minutes remaining, so today you are dismissed early."

Rikki POV

Don't ask what happened in that room. All I know is I raised my hand, and I accidentally released my powers and set some papers on fire. As soon as I did it I blamed myself. '_Idiot!_' I thought. I should have been more careful. Why did I raise my hand? I couldn't even remember. Probably to make some clever comeback or stupid comeback.

When the teacher dismissed us early, I ran out with Cleo, and we waited in front of Art History, where Emma and Bella came out talking. When they saw our faces, they got quiet.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked us.

"How long do you have before you're next class?" Cleo asked them.

"Um, about an hour, I guess." Emma said.

We looked at Bella. "Yeah, me too, why?" she asked. I stayed quiet.

"Let's go to the Moon Pool," Cleo said, looking around, "We'll tell you there."

I dove into the ocean, and felt the cool water rush against my face as I swam the path to Mako. I was ahead of the others, but I didn't care right now. I swam as fast as I could, trying to block out the embarrassment. I was the one always ranting about protecting our secret, and not letting others catch on. And look what I'd done! Of course, people wouldn't jump to the conclusion that I used my mermaid powers to set a fire. But if these things continue happening, people will get suspicious, and suspicion is danger.

At the pool, Cleo and I (mostly Cleo) filled Emma and Bella in.

"Are you serious?" Emma asked.

"No, we made this up." I said sarcastically. I guess my voice gave my hurt away.

"Sorry. I just… think you need to practice," Emma told me.

Cleo's face took on that scrunched up, thinking look, "And Miss Chatham always said you're power was most dangerous and hardest to control. But you've got the hang of it twice before, you will again."

"You're right," I decided, "But for now, I just have to get through the rest of the day."

We swam back, dried off on the beach, and walked to the campus. I got through the rest of my classes (thankfully fire-free) and walked to my dorm room. I lay down on my bed and thought. I loved my power. It seemed right for me. But I didn't always love being referred to as the fiery, temperamental one. Sometimes I tried to hide my sad and hurt feelings simply because it would seem abnormal if I didn't. All I knew now is that I had to learn to control my power, and I needed the girls' help.


End file.
